FPL unveils solar power plus energy storage system
Florida Power & Light Co. unveiled a new solar-plus-storage system to fully integrate battery technology with a solar power
plant in a way that increases the plant’s overall energy output.
By incorporating this new technology into the FPL Citrus Solar Energy Center, a solar power plant that was built in 2016, FPL expects to increase the amount of solar energy that the plant can deliver to the electric grid by more than half a million kilowatt-hours a year.
The new system features a 4,000-kW/16,000-kWh storage capacity comprised of multiple batteries integrated into the operations of the FPL Citrus Solar Energy Center. In addition to enabling the plant to provide more solar energy to the grid, the battery system is capable of storing the energy and dispatching it to the grid at a later time.
This technology has the potential to harness millions of kWh of solar energy a year that would normally be lost and improve the predictability of solar energy, which naturally fluctuates with the sun’s availability. Increased predictability enables FPL to more efficiently dispatch other power plants, helping save customers on fuel costs.
The FPL Citrus Solar Energy Center is one of three solar plants FPL operates in Florida’s DeSoto County – a community that boasts more solar panels than residents. In addition to the FPL Citrus Solar Energy Center, DeSoto County is home to Florida’s first solar power plant, the 25-MW FPL DeSoto Next Generation Clean Energy Center, which was the largest of its kind in the nation when it was built in 2009, and the 74.5-MW FPL Wildflower Solar Energy Center, which entered service on Jan. 1, 2018.
FPL is in the midst of one of the largest solar expansions ever in the eastern U.S. with more than 520 MW – 3.5 million new solar panels – added in the last two years alone and nearly 300 MW more scheduled to enter service by March 1. From 2016 to 2023, FPL expects to install a total of more than 10 million solar panels. These advancements continue to improve FPL’s carbon emissions profile, which is already about 30 percent cleaner than the U.S. industry average.
Moreover, FPL’s eight newest solar plants combined are projected to generate more than $100 million in net savings, over and above the cost of construction, for FPL customers. Investments like these help FPL keep rates low for customers over the long term. FPL’s typical 1,000-kWh residential customer bill is lower than it was more than 10 years ago and about 25 percent lower than the latest U.S. average. (FPL rates are decreasing again on March 1.)
The new solar-plus-storage system unveiled today is the first large-scale application of “DC-coupled” batteries at a solar power plant in the U.S. It has the same advantages of other universal solar-plus-storage installations, such as the ability to store energy and dispatch it to the grid at a later time. An advantage of DC-coupled batteries is the ability to harness extra energy that a solar plant generates when the sun’s rays are the strongest.
